Podcast 53: Does God Exist? (Apologetics 4)

Apologetics 4: Teleological Arguments for God’s Existence

If someone asked you, “Why do you believe in God?” How would you answer? Sadly, most of us would flounder around, maybe talking about the bible or second-hand miracles. However, philosophers have long identified three classic approaches to reasoning about God’s existence: the ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments. In this lecture, you’ll learn several versions of the teleological argument–evidence for intelligent design–so that you can reason from the complexity of creation to the existence of the creator.

If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade.

Notes:

introduce three main arguments

1. cosmological: cause and effect
2. teleological: order and design
3. ontological: reason alone

general approach for teleological arguments:

1. the universe exhibits a certain level of order and design
2. a design requires a designer
3. a designer of the universe exists

what proof is there that a painter exists? a painting

what does a building prove? a builder exists

what about a tree? it is more complex than a painting or building, doesn’t this prove a tree-maker exists

• relating to design or purpose especially in nature (m-w.com)
• it is based on order and design
• Romans 1.18-20 and Psalm 19.1-4

Advantages to the teleological argument

• It is very easy to prove because it is in experience
• The argument uses well established scientific facts to prove the existence of God
• True science will always lead to God. In the end science it the study of the creation and thus an indirect study of the Creator.
• “The conflicts between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ occur in historical science, not in operational science.” (Answer’s Book, p. 21)

classic formulation:

William Paley’s Watchmaker Argument

• Suppose you were walking along the beach and saw a watch on the ground…
• How many parts are in the watch?
• biological complexity, cosmic complexity, the just right conditions for earth (distance from sun, etc.)

Cell Complexity (Biological Teleological Argument)

Consider a human cell

1. blood-clotting mechanism, the bacterial flagellum, photosynthetic apparatus, pupal transformation from caterpillars to butterflies, complexity of human brain,
2. “The most reasonable inference from such observations is that outside intelligence was responsible for a vast original store of biological information in the form of created populations of fully functioning organisms. Such intelligence vastly surpasses human intelligence…” (Answer’s Book, p. 29)

Information in DNA (Origin of Code Approach)

• it is an encoding/decoding system
• the sequence represents something other than itself (i.e. the genes contain the information about what an organism will be)
• It has an alphabet and a syntax (the combinations of letters mean something)
• A DNA sequence can be copied and stored on other media without a loss of information (only language has this property)
• In fact even committed atheists will refer to it as the DNA code (code is a language; think of Morse code or computer code)
• The DNA code contains information which is neither matter nor energy (though it is stored/transmitted/encoded/decoded by matter and energy)
• Language comes from a mind (there are no languages that do not come from a mind)
  • this argument hinges on this assertion
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